


Straight On Until Morning

by she_who_the_river_could_not_hold



Series: Troped: Fic Challenge [6]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Bellamy as Peter Pan, Bellamy x Gina (past), Gen, POV Bellamy Blake, Peter Pan AU, Season 1 and Season Two vibes, The Deliquents as the Lost Boys, canonverse, fairy tale AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:42:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23142643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/she_who_the_river_could_not_hold/pseuds/she_who_the_river_could_not_hold
Summary: Bellamy and his unruly band of Delinquents have been living life as they wish. Their days are filled with games and exploring while their nights are spent coordinating attacks against the dreaded Wanheda and her Mountain Men. It's all fun and games in a world where no one gets older.But then a strange man appears one day and Marcus Kane provides a reality check to Bellamy that he's not prepared to accept.
Series: Troped: Fic Challenge [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1524449
Comments: 14
Kudos: 12
Collections: Chopped Madness





	Straight On Until Morning

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to Chopped Madness! This is the qualifying round where we were assigned to focus on Bellamy Blake. Our theme was “canonverse” and had to use the tropes “Fairy Tale AU” and write a good character as a villain or a villain as a good character (clarified at the end)! My fairy tale is Peter Pan (with Bellamy as Peter!) and this story is a bleed of season one and the beginning of season two. 
> 
> Also since in Peter Pan it’s a thing that Peter has to forget his memories to remain childlike, I used that pretty heavily here as a character trait. Hopefully that’s not confusing!

Bellamy Blake was sure of many things. 

He was most certainly sure of himself. Cocky even, but that was to be expected after everything he’d gone through and accomplished. 

He was sure of the loyalty of his band of misfits, The Delinquents, as well as the feistiness of his pixie-like sister, Octavia. 

He was sure of the fact that until he died, their enemy in the mountain would fight back and they would be in this dance until one day there was a victor in their battles. 

What he wasn’t sure of was how long he’d been on Earth or even how old he was. 

* * *

The smell of roasting boar filtered through the air, accompanied by the pop and sizzle of it cooking and the crackle of fire beneath it. Late afternoon was settling into itself on the cusp of evening, and golden light was filtering through the trees. 

It had been a long day and Bellamy could feel the soreness beginning to creep up on his muscles. But it was the good kind of soreness, one that he was proud of. Climbing high up into trees, balancing on new bridges that they were building to replace fallen down ones, wrestling with the others to keep everyone moving and ready to fight. Murphy had gotten one good hit on him before he could fully recover and he’d almost been too proud to remember to hit back. 

Pushing back his still somewhat sweaty curls, Bellamy tilted his head back to soak in the day’s warmth. Today had been all play but he knew that it wouldn’t last. There was only so much time before another retaliation would hit and it was impossible to know exactly when. Their record was… well he couldn’t remember the longest length of time in between attacks but something in his gut told him that one would be soon.

Just as he was starting to become completely lost in thought, he heard crashing through the trees near him. He slowly started to open his eyes, fight or flight mode not quite activated yet, when he heard a loud ––

“Bellamy!”

At that, Bellamy jerked his head up to see what the commotion was. He was used to the Delinquents being loud and rambunctious, but this was something different this time.

And indeed it was. 

The first to come bursting out into the open was Octavia, her eyes spitting fire and her long hair flying behind her. She was his second-in-command – and not just because she was his sister. Quicker to temper than even he was, she was good at keeping the others in line. And now it looked like her anger was in full force. Though it wasn’t immediately obvious at what yet (it was usually him for some reason).

But then as Murphy and Miller came right after, breaking through bushes, he quickly saw what this was all about. 

A man was being dragged between them, an arm being held by each teenage boy. His hair might have been slicked back at one point, but now the salt and pepper gray hair flopped forward unceremoniously, his beard grown out a bit haphazardly. A gun hung loosely at his waist and Bellamy’s lip curled at the knowledge that his boys had been too quick for him to be able to draw it on them before being captured. The most concerning feature though was his age. He was an adult. 

Adults didn’t belong here.

“We found him snooping about,” Octavia spat out, spinning on her heel once she reached Bellamy so that she could glare at the man. 

Walking up towards the man as Miller and Murphy pushed him onto his knees, Bellamy twirled his dagger between his fingers. A boastful trick he could do without even thinking about it, a devilish glee in watching the man’s eyes track his hands carefully. As if he’d ever drop it.

“Take his weapon,” Bellamy instructed once he was upon him. 

“I don’t mean any harm,” the man quickly said as Murphy jostled him about to get the gun off of his hip. Bellamy wasn’t particularly interested in keeping the weapon but made a show of having Murphy handing it over and him attaching it to his own belt. 

“Please. I’d just like to talk, who is in charge here?”

Bellamy’s temper flared.

“I’m in charge here,” he responded sharply. The man’s eyes widened but stopped struggling at Bellamy’s words. 

When he realized that the man was finally taking him seriously, Bellamy stowed his dagger away. He could make a show about banishing this man somewhere, but that wouldn’t really serve a purpose since he wasn’t a Delinquent. He should probably just question him – he’d never seen him before and he thought he had met everyone here. Seeing new people made him anxious, an emotion he almost never felt and certainly wouldn’t admit to. 

“You can stand him up again,” he said quietly to Miller and Murphy. The two exchanged a look before hoisting the man back up. 

Bellamy approached him even closer, his eyes narrowed as he drew himself up to his full height. 

“I’m Bellamy Blake. Who are you?”

“I’m Marcus Kane, Chancellor of Arkadia. Our camp is to the South of here and we’re slowly beginning to explore this land, we came down a couple years ago from space when the Ark ran out of oxygen. Now that we’re settled, we were hoping to reach out to the others who lived here,” the man said, placing his hand out in Bellamy’s direction.

He didn’t return the handshake.

Clearing his throat, the man ( _ Kane _ , Bellamy reminded himself) looked around at all of them. He seemed to be taking in each of their appearances: the sloppy war paint on some, the holes in their clothes, the sunburnt cheekbones and freckled faces. Bellamy knew that they looked like what they called themselves, delinquents in the truest sense. But that didn’t seem to be Kane’s focus, his eyes lingering on their faces as a dawning recognition overcame his expression.

“Are you… a part of the one hundred? The original hundred?”

They all looked at each other in confusion before glancing at Bellamy. All he could do was blink curiously at Kane, who seemed to be growing more confused. 

“But you can’t be... that was years ago, none of you have aged. You’re all the age you would have been when we sent you down here.”

“We’ve always been here,” Murphy interrupted, his eyes narrowed. His arms were crossed over his chest and his distaste for their visitor was obvious. 

“Well, Gina wasn’t always here,” corrected Harper who then quickly stopped talking at the glare from Bellamy. 

“Gina? Gina Martin?” 

At that, Kane swung back to Bellamy. His confusion had turned almost defiant now. 

“Gina is at Arkadia, this is where she was for that time she disappeared?” 

Shifting uncomfortably, all Bellamy could do was nod.

“She was sent down with Raven Reyes to figure out why our results from all of you were inconclusive,” Kane continued, looking at all of them with even more curiosity. 

They all looked at each other, digging into their memories to figure it out. None of them remembered a second person. It had always just been Gina, a figure who had showed up in their lives unexpectedly. 

Bellamy let Monty give a brief explanation of her arrival, while he kept his own feelings in check. He wasn’t used to falling for people, too caught up in the adventures that surrounded them. But Gina had been different – she’d felt more real than all the rest. The way she would craft stories for them by the campfire, her eyes lit up and her hands helping carry the story to new heights. How his heart had thudded at the idea of her being in danger, making him even more reckless than normal. 

Monty’s summary had it that just one day Gina said she had to go home, but Bellamy’s version was longer. It was one of the sharper memories in his mind. When she begged him to come back with her, that it was time to grow up and return to her people.  _ Their  _ people she had said, as if there was some sort of connection. That she needed to find Raven, who she had nearly forgotten about but only barely remembered that she had gone towards the mountain. 

He’d refused. It had hurt him so much that she had wanted to leave their small oasis in the woods that he had outright refused, not even letting himself consider it. 

How had he not been enough? 

“Well,” Kane’s voice cut through his thoughts, “she is home safely. We’re still searching for Raven, but Gina is safe and doing well. Married in fact, they have a little girl named Jane who’s just learning how to walk.”

“I feel sorry for her, it’s so much better here,” Jasper said under his breath, elbowing Monty as he did. 

Kane shook his head. “You need not be sorry for her, she grew and changed on her own free will.” 

His words made the rest of them fall into silence. But while they all shuffled uncomfortably he continued to study them, as if he was memorizing their faces. Bellamy supposed it made sense seeing as how this man was convinced that somehow he had known them, or at least known of them at some point. 

“I think… I think I need you to start from the beginning,” Kane said slowly as he turned back to Bellamy. He asked as if there was a simple answer. 

What was their beginning?

Did they truly have one? 

This spot on Earth had just always been home, a fuzziness to the time before it. It had always just been them, him and the Delinquents. 

Life was them waking up as the sun did and going to sleep as it disappeared into darkness. Scavenging the woods with weapons demonstrated to them by the elusive Trikru to the West and learning to fish thanks to the miraculously patient Floukru from the East. Making up games and telling stories to pass the time. As Bellamy did his best to recount their story, he let others chime in with their perspectives. Each of them had just a slightly different detail. 

They did all agree though Bellamy was no doubt the best leader for them and he had willingly stepped up to the role. He didn’t try to control them, but they all liked the direction he gave them. And since there hadn’t been much of a home at the start, when they’d discovered the rocket ship that was halfway taken over by nature already, they converted it into an almost mechanical treehouse as well as underground bunker for them to live in. Bellamy’s direction had helped get it going and see itself to completion. 

Once they were done sharing the more light-hearted stories though, a couple of them balked at the impending topic. 

After they’d described what was to the East and to the West, Kane had naturally asked them about the North. Each of them exchanged a nervous glance with each other.

“A mountain we dubbed Skull Rock,” Bellamy finally responded. “We don’t go there.” 

“It’s not like we have to,” Miller added on, “when they always just come to us.” 

“They?”

“The Mountain Men and their captain, Wanheda.”

Kane’s expression didn’t clear at Harper’s clarification so Bellamy kept on going. He explained the unpredictable fights that would happen, the sneak attacks by the Mountain Men in the dead of the night when they were least expecting it. They usually ended in messy brawls, nearly comical in nature as the Delinquents lead them through obstacle after obstacle of their own creations. This was their land. 

“And they’re led by Wanheda,” Bellamy continued.

“It means the Commander of Death,” supplied Monty. “She’s a terror. We’ve all decided that she’s probably what pirates were like back in the day. At least like they are in the books.”

Everyone nodded at his words. There was a ruthlessness to her that was chilling, built upon stories that they don’t even recall the origin of. Tales of bodies piling up into the hundreds, a bloodthirsty level of dedication to her people that resulted in endless death.

“I heard she lost a hand in a fight with a gorilla, had to replace it with a hook,” Jasper whispered almost excitedly. Next to him, Monty rolled his eyes.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” interjected Harper with a giggle. “Bellamy’s never mentioned a hook.”

“Even with a hook she’d never beat him,” piped up another Delinquent, “Bellamy’s too good of a fighter and he’s never lost to her yet.” 

Bellamy smirked and rolled his shoulders back as the praise began. It was true – for how cunning of an enemy Wanheda was, she had never been able to outsmart him. It didn’t matter what tricks she used with her poisonous smoke or how much she used her smaller size to her advantage. He could still run her in circles. Harper was correct though, not a hook in sight.

“But she’s evil, hook or not,” Miller swore, brow furrowed. “She’s started going after Floukru, especially Luna.” 

Bellamy was about to interject that he had it taken care of when he was beaten to the punch.

“Will you and your people help us with Wanheda?” Fox, one of the quieter Delinquents asked Kane. 

Bellamy almost wished she hadn’t said anything. He had been handling everything as well as he could, and it wasn’t like any of them were too worse for wear even after their various fights. Besides, where was the fun in having all of this come to an end? Would they just sit around all day long with nothing to do? He didn’t want to admit that this back and forth they had helped give him something to devote his extra energy towards. 

“I don’t see why we couldn’t, I’m sure she’s had a hand in our own disappearances we’ve been battling. I’d like to have more answers though since I’ve certainly developed more questions after all of this. And I’d like to have our doctor examine each of you, I can’t for the life of me figure out how you’ve all stayed the same age,” he added on.

Bristling at the idea of them being forced to go with Kane, Bellamy shook his head. They didn’t need any adults here, they were doing just fine on their own  _ thank you very much _ .

“We’re good here,” he retorted. “We don’t need to go home with you.”

“You’re practically children, of course you do. I’m impressed you’ve kept this many alive so far but still, this is no place to be unsupervised.” 

Kane looked surprised at being spoken back to in that manner, as if he was used to people directly following his orders. Well unfortunately for him, Bellamy was used to people following his orders too. 

“I can’t in good conscious let a group of teenagers live on their own here. Especially when you’ve admitted that you’re not even trying to really kill the person who is taking out your own people.”

Bellamy scoffed. “She’s not taking out my own people.” 

Kane’s eyebrows arched into his hairline. 

“Where do you think they’ve gone to then? Regardless of what you remember, I know that you were all once a part of the original group we sent to Earth, and there are too few of you left. The others died, Bellamy.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, I banished them!” Bellamy couldn’t listen to what this man was saying any longer. Which was apparently the wrong thing to say.

“You need to grow up!” Kane shouted frustratedly. 

Bellamy merely clenched his jaw in silence. 

“Is this some sort of game to you? You’ve been playing out here in the woods, getting entangled with danger and doing nothing about it? People are dying out there, but you’re too caught up in your little dance with Wanheda to care about the consequences.” 

His distrust and anger palpable, Kane turned on his heel and began to walk away.

“Don’t you see though? There is freedom here,” Bellamy retorted, stalking after Kane. “What’s wrong with a little chaos anyway? We have joy, we have youth. You’re asking us to forget everything.”

His words must have struck a chord with Kane who immediately stopped, nearly causing Bellamy to run into the back of him. The older man jerked around and before Bellamy could step away, his hand reached up and pulled him close into him. Kane’s grip on his chin was tight but Bellamy fought to keep the discomfort out of his expression. Swallowing the pain down, he kept his face cocky and defiant even as Kane’s eyes traced the scratches and bruises on his cheeks that hadn’t recovered from the last time he had fought with Wanheda. 

“You are a boy Bellamy,” he whispered. “You have so much to learn still and you don’t get to escape reality by running away from it. One day, we all have to face our demons. To forget what we’ve done would be a mistake.” 

With that, he let go of Bellamy’s face and stepped back. 

“We’ll help you fight Wanheda, but you have to promise this will be the end of these antics. Stay here, we’ll return at nightfall. I need time to explain this to my people.” 

If the others were surprised by Bellamy not reacting as he let Kane walk away, they hid it well. Octavia gently reached up to touch his jaw where it had been held by Kane, her face filled with concern. He knew she meant well, but he shook her off all the same. 

The joy that he usually carried with him had disappeared. The weight of the time they had spent here was becoming apparent in his mind, aware of how young his body was despite memories from years ago coming back to him in bits and pieces. He’d always been aware of the amount of death in Wanheda’s wake, but now his mind felt sharper. Kane had mentioned  _ the hundred _ and now Bellamy could see faces that he hadn’t remembered until this moment. Delinquents who had once fought with him. For him. 

And now they were gone. Gone along with the idea that everything was perfect here and that this would be all they’d ever need. A forever encampment of childhood, never growing up and never having to face consequences. 

“Bellamy, do you really think this is the right call?” Octavia hissed nervously, glancing over to make sure the others weren’t listening. “If we go to Skull Rock, we won’t be able to come back. There’s only forward, you heard Kane.” 

“I’m scared too,” Bellamy whispered. “But we have to. We can’t keep staying in this cycle.” 

She sat quietly, studying him, before nodding her head. 

“Okay Big Brother, let’s do it.”

As they waited for Kane to return, letting the night overtake them, Bellamy paced. The rest of the Delinquents pulled together any weapon they had made. Backpacks were compiled with rations they had leftover from the boar that had gone cold earlier with Kane’s arrival, as well as any sort of scraps or things they’d collected over time. 

Explaining to them that they’d be going back with Kane after defeating Wanheda had been difficult for Bellamy. He was stubborn. This was admitting that he didn’t know everything, that he wasn’t in control. But he couldn’t just banish Kane or this problem away like how he did with people like Dax.

The moon rose over the forest as it chased the sun, the evening bleeding into night. The fire had been put out and their camp was stripped. Their home under the ground to now be left behind. In the distance, they could hear the sounds of Kane’s people growing closer. Echoes of voices and walking that their ears were able to pick up after what turned out to be years of practice. With the sight of lanterns drawing nearer, the Delinquents knew it was time to get ready to leave.

“Well, fearless leader,” Murphy intoned, “any last words before we finally figure out what’s out there? Take down the infamous Wanheda?”

Bellamy finally mustered up his signature cocky grin, glancing at each of the remaining Delinquents in the half circle they’d formed around him. Now when he looked at them, he could see glimmers of the ones who were gone. The lost ones. 

His memory would come back as he pulled away from this place, he was sure of it. And while the weight of this new reality was beginning to pull at him, he could also feel a new thrum in his chest. A new opportunity on the horizon that nearly made him lift up into the air. This would all be new for them, but surely that meant it was right. Kane had been right, even his aggressive way, that it did no good to hide from the world around them. So he said the first thing that came to his mind as he looked at the Delinquents, each looking at him anxiously. 

_ “To live will be an awfully big adventure.” _

**Author's Note:**

> Whoops this accidentally became a pseudo “character study” about how well Season One!Bellamy matches Peter Pan and comes to terms with taking on responsibility and learning that the childlike chaos doesn’t always mean something is better. If you have any questions about the Peter Pan easter eggs in it or have questions about how I crossed things over, please feel free to ask and I’ll explain! I planned out way more backstory into this than I meant to/would fit into this small of a oneshot lololol. 
> 
> For the trope of changing a character, I chose to make it that Clarke leaned fully into the role of Wanheda and became a villain, turning Mount Weather into her lair, a la Captain Hook’s pirate ship. I’m fascinated by the mythology that could come with that type of character and so I wanted to use it in this story!
> 
> Anyway thanks for checking this out! Voting will be up shortly and then it’ll be on to the official rounds! Check back here for an eventual moodboard once the authors are revealed!
> 
>  **where else you can find me:** [Tumblr](https://she-who-the-river-could-not-hold.tumblr.com/) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/the_river_held) | [my carrd](https://she-who-the-river-could-not-hold.carrd.co/)


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